Day 6 Samur to Tours 81 kms

12 to 32 degrees      Moderate head wind   6/8/2009

What a day, our biggest ride ever – 7 AM on the bikes, magnificent riding along the bank of the Loire watching the sun come up over the broad expanses of the river. Cool and mild, perfect for riding. The first 2 hours of riding was along the levee bank, then we dived of the river into narrow leafy lanes, just magic in the early morning light. We enjoyed our quiche, fruit and juice at a small village after D combed the place for coffee to no avail. The only problem with early starts, the coffee shops are not open early enough! We cycled on past a continuous parade of lovely chateau and fine buildings made from the local stone on our right and fabulous vistas of the Loire on our left. Many of the houses were built into the cliff face, lots of  bright flower gardens and neatly kept vegetable patches.

At our first coffee stop (a small hotel restaurant) over looking the river we chatted to a couple of older Swiss chaps riding and taking pot luck with their accommodation. They weren't covering a lot of ground, but they were having a very nice time. At our next coffee stop we caught up with a couple who were staying at our hotel in Ingrandes and had coffee with them. They lived in Anger

and were just out for a few days ride.

At Villandry K&D made a short visit to the famous chateau there to look at the fabulous gardens, I had been there a couple of years ago and the body was starting to sag so I cycled on into the next town???? and bought a few nice bits for lunch, including a bottle of local rose' (goats cheese, terrine de lapin, tomatoes and mineral water) and rested up a bit. I always wanted to do the baguette on the back of the bike thing – now ticked of!

With full stomachs and the head wind picking up we set off to cover the last 20 kms to Tours. A bit slower but a good ride, nice ride into Tours, bike path almost to our hotel. K had another brush with traffic, but no tears this time.

My body performed much better than I expected, the long lunch break probably helped.

The usual jobs done and then we hit the town for a couple of beers. We chose a run down brasserie for dinner, nothing special, but we had a good night eating on the street with a chap playing jazz/swing trumpet in the back ground.

D had a luck break, he had hung his washing in the hotel window as he is want to do, we found his bike shorts on the footpath when we returned to the Hotel.